LANTERNS Season Finale Isn’t Explosive, but It Gives John Stewart the Ending He Needs
The first season of Lanterns has been an interesting gamble for DC Studios. Rather than throwing Green Lantern fans straight into a massive cosmic adventure filled with alien worlds, power-ring constructs, and intergalactic warfare, the series planted its feet on Earth and built a detective mystery around John Stewart and Hal Jordan.
That approach hasn’t always worked perfectly, but I ultimately loved what the series was trying to do. The season finale doesn’t hit quite as hard as I hoped it would, especially after everything leading up to it, but the character work and performances still make it a satisfying conclusion. More importantly, it puts Aaron Pierre’s John Stewart exactly where he needs to be for his future in the DCU.
One of the biggest criticisms of Lanterns has been the balance between its gritty Earth-bound mystery and the much larger cosmic mythology surrounding the Green Lantern Corps. The series occasionally reaches toward that bigger universe, but it remains committed to being a character-driven detective story first.
That doesn’t change in the finale. Anyone expecting John and Hal to start throwing giant glowing fists at enemies while the sky explodes is going to be disappointed, and ultimately I was fine with it. The closest things to traditional action are John forcing Sinestro into contaminated water and a flashback involving Hal attempting to escape a burning house.
That might sound anticlimactic for a Green Lantern finale, but the episode doesn’t really need a giant superhero battle. Instead, it relies on confrontations between characters, revelations about what actually happened, and the emotional consequences of the mystery we’ve been following all season.
Some of those conversations completely change how we understand earlier events. The revelation surrounding who killed Hal Jordan and why carries more weight than another big fight probably would have. Episode 5 remains the season’s major action showcase, while the finale makes its impact through people sitting across from each other and confronting some ugly truths.
That only works because the cast is so damn good. Pierre has been excellent as John Stewart throughout the season. John thinks through everything, studies the people around him, and rarely reacts without processing what’s happening first.
Pierre brings that quality to the character without making him feel emotionally distant. By the finale, John has developed a commanding presence that makes it incredibly easy to picture him becoming a major part of the DCU.
Kyle Chandler also continues to deliver as Hal Jordan, my favorite character of the series, while Kelly Macdonald as Kerry Kane and Shea Pritchard as Noah Macon are given some difficult material to work through in the final chapter. Macdonald in particular gets one of the episode’s strongest scenes opposite Pierre.
The finale also reinforces something I really liked about the series, and that’s that Lanterns understands that possessing great willpower doesn’t mean every Green Lantern should have the same personality.
John Stewart, Hal Jordan, Guy Gardner, and Sinestro all demonstrate will in completely different ways. For one character, it can mean discipline. For another, confidence bordering on arrogance. It can also come through control, stubbornness, grit, or an absolute belief that what you’re doing is right.
That gives each Lantern his own identity while establishing how several wildly different characters can all be worthy of wielding a power ring. The finale also falls into a superhero storytelling habit that I think some fans wish could finally retire.
After spending an entire season building John Stewart toward becoming Green Lantern, the series still doesn’t give us the payoff of seeing him fully suited up in his iconic Green Lantern uniform. That doesn’t really bother me, though. The story was strong enough to not need it.
This is one of those superhero origin stories where the hero finally earns the identity right end. I understand why Lanterns makes that creative choice. John’s journey throughout the season is about figuring out what being a Green Lantern means for him rather than simply inheriting someone else’s version of the job.
Hal and John’s relationship finally reaches the destination the series has been building toward, and we get a glimpse of where John is headed next.
That future is especially exciting because this season was also tasked with preparing John Stewart for his appearance in Man of Tomorrow. Knowing that, I can understand why the finale functions more as a transition for John than a massive conclusion to everything Lanterns introduced.
I also can’t wait to see more of John interacting with Guy Gardner. Their personalities give DC Studios plenty to play with, and their relationship could be a hell of a lot of fun going forward. After seeing what Pierre brings to John, putting him alongside Guy should create a great dynamic as the Green Lantern side of the DCU continues to expand.
In the end, I’m a fan of the series and that it committed to its detective-story identity, gave its cast substantial material to work with, and introduced a John Stewart I absolutely want to follow into future DCU projects.
The finale may be muted compared to what some fans expected from Green Lantern, but the storytelling still lands where it counts.
What did you think of the Lanterns season finale? Did it deliver the ending you wanted, or were you hoping for something bigger?